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Each year in the Italian city of Catania, on the east coast of Sicily, nearly a million people gather in the world’s third-largest Catholic celebration to pay homage to Saint Agatha.  In 2013, director Bernadette Wegenstein embarked on a journey to uncover the truths woven into the widely told myth of Agatha.  

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Devoti Tutti follows the rituals around the two-thousand year old cult of Saint Agatha through the eyes of the animated Saint and those raised in Catania while examining the cost of martyrdom through a modern feminist lens.  

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Modern day Catania exhibits evidence of a rich history, established by the Greeks, conquered by Rome, it is a city of great cultural and artistic influence.   

Agatha is known as the patron saint for breast cancer patients, victims of sexual assault, and of natural disasters. 

La Festa di Sant'Agata (The Feast of Saint Agatha) is one of the largest religious festivals in Italy.

Following Mt Etna's eruption in 1669 and an earthquake in 1693, almost the entire city was rebuilt,  leaving behind the exquisite Baroque architecture of  the early eighteenth century. 

 

The Catanese believe that Agatha protects them from natural disasters.  When Mt. Etna erupted in 1169, they carried her sacred red veil to the river of lava, which miraculously ceased its flow towards Catania. 

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